Clover Ridge Farm is home to special needs pugs, orphaned barn cats, and we recently expanded to goats who now get to live their lives out on our little farm.

In trying to decide on a name for our farm, I thought back to two very special pets I’ve had the honor of sharing my journey with; Pugsley (aka the Sausage) my forever soul-pug who is the inspiration behind all of my rescue work. And TT, my first ever cat who started out as a semi-feral barn cat but slowly worked her way into my house and my home and my heart. Sadly they are both no longer with us.

It took me a while because I wanted to pick a really good name that had a nice ring to it but also goes with the farm / land. Our farm sits on a mountain ridge, and there happens to be clovers everywhere.

I have such very fond memories of me and the Sausage spending long hours together just hanging out in the backyard, searching for 4 leaf clovers (I never did find one, but it turns out HE was my lucky 4 leaf clover).

TT also loved rolling around in the patches of clover and grass, she would even let me scratch her belly sometimes.

So in honor of the Sausage and TT, I decided on Clover Ridge Farm.

The crazy thing is shortly after giving our farm its name, I started finding 4 leaf cloverseverywhere, especially in the goat pasture. What happens is the goats lead me to a section of their pasture and plop themselves down on a certain patch of clovers and that’s where I find them!

It’s like the goats show me exactly where the 4 leaf clovers are. Now I can’t stop finding them! In fact, everyone who comes to visit the farm, gets to find and pick their own 4 leaf clover!

It’s clear that my pugs and cats and the goats are my good luck charms. I call them my little leprechauns!

Oscar (and his lady friend Rosie) came to us 6 years ago when they were abandoned during Hurricane Sandy. Nobody claimed them at the shelter, so they came to live with us and never left. Shortly into fostering, Oscar had his first seizure which set us on a long journey of trial and errors trying to find the right combination of diet, medications, herbs, etc. that might help. Over the years he’s had stable periods, and then he has bad periods where cluster seizures occur. It’s a never-ending battle we fight together every day.

Currently Oscar has seizures every 1-2 weeks, sometimes more. He’s on 3 different types of western medications plus various herbal supplements that help, but he still has them. They frequency has been increasing of late, but the duration has remains about the same.

I’ve been told by countless vets that “maintaining” is the best we can hope for at his age with all his issues. He doesn’t know what’s happening when it happens, and the doctors have assured me he doesn’t feel any pain. I believe it’s harder on me than it is him.

I’m religious about giving Oscar his medications around the clock, even I made a commitment to this living breathing soul the day I pulled him from that shelter and I take my commitments seriously.

In addition to his idiopathic epilepsy, Oscar also has a number of age related issues including chronic bronchitis for which we are also always managing this condition with herbs, inhalers, and special treatments to keep his lungs as healthy as long as possible and keep him from developing recurrent pneumonia.

My only goal is to give Oscar the best quality and quantity of life possible, After his previous life of cruelty, abuse, neglect, and abandonment isn’t that the least I could do?

I’ll keep fighting for Oscar, as long as he continues to fight and show me that he’s enjoying life. Won’t you agree he his WORTH fighting for?

It sounds funny to say we are just getting started because I have personally been rescuing animals in some form or another for my whole life.

I began my philanthropic animal rescue work approximately 20 years ago and have been committed to saving as many animals as I can, ever since.

Over the years, I have held volunteer positions for the local Audubon center rehabilitating orphaned baby animals, spent decades working for several pug rescue organizations, and more recently began getting involved in cat rescue.

Oh, and I’m an accidental goatherd as well!

What can I say, when you have a calling in life, you answer the call.

And you work hard day after day, year after year, trying to make a difference wherever you can. To be the change you wish to see in the world.

Then you reach a point where you realize you can’t do it ALL by yourself, especially if you want to GROW, be able to make an even BIGGER impact, and help save even MORE lives.

So here we are about to embark on this new phase of our journey and I’m happy to announce that Clover Ridge Farm Sanctuary Inc. is officially a 501c3 non-profit organization! That means we get to do cool things now like accept charitable contributions, raise funds and awareness, people who support our mission can make tax-free donations, and we can hire volunteers to help expand.